John 21:15-19
When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.” A second time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” And he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.” (He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, “Follow me.”
There are any number of commentators who, over the years, have drawn attention to the two different Greek words that John uses for “love” in this passage. The first two times Jesus asks Peter, “Do you love me?” Jesus uses the Greek word agapao, which signifies the self-sacrificial love of a parent, while Peter uses the somewhat less intense word phileo, which is more about collegial, filial love (think Philadelphia as the “city of brotherly love”). The third time, Jesus also uses the phileo, perhaps signifying that Jesus has accepted what Peter can offer. So twice he invites Peter to a stauncher commitment and the third time meets him where he is.
It’s a moving interpretation, and perhaps this is just what John intends. But John uses those two words for love so interchangeably throughout his story about Jesus that I’m not completely convinced. I think Jesus asks Peter three times for another reason altogether.
Just earlier in this scene, Jesus invites the disciples to share breakfast with him around a charcoal fire. There is only one other scene in John where there is a charcoal fire, and it also involves three pronouncements from Peter about Jesus. Except that this time, it’s Peter denying that he even knows Jesus after he had followed Jesus to the high priest’s house after his arrest. At that point in the story, Peter was asked three times about his allegiance, or love, for Jesus and he failed…miserably. Here, Jesus gives him three opportunities to profess fidelity and he does, wiping away, I think, the three denials.
And then, in response to those three professions of love and faith, Jesus neither congratulates him nor offers forgiveness. Rather, he gives him good work to do. The work of being a leader, of looking out for the followers of Jesus. Jesus, in short, restores Peter to the discipleship community and calls him to a life of purposeful service, witness, and eventually (as the closing verse signifies) sacrifice.
Prayer: Dear God, as you received Peter’s gifts and put them to holy use, so also receive what we have and are and put them into service for the people and world you love so much. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Recent Comments